1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to streaming video data to mobile devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Video streaming over the Internet is known for which a video data file is transmitted to a requesting browser substantially in real time. However, the video data is streamed in packets therefore it is necessary for these packets to be buffered, reassembled and decoded at the browser. Synchronisation is therefore achieved at the browser itself and the data is not transmitted over the Internet in a synchronous fashion, unlike conventional broadcast techniques.
The possibility of streaming video data to mobile devices has been considered for some time. However, a problem exists in that mobile transmission over radio networks is susceptible to being lost temporarily, usually through loss of signal in the radio network. This may occur for example when the signal is temporarily obscured (such as when a train enters a tunnel) or during a hand over from one cell from another.
It is appreciated that loss of signal situations are occurring less frequently but it also appreciated, given the nature of the radio environment, that loss of signal situations will never be eliminated. Thus, the present radio network creates problems when requests are made for video assets of a significant length (say 1 hour 30 minutes) to be streamed to mobile devices.